I'm like a Bird
by candelight
Summary: Based on Pearl87's Checkmate. In the outposts of Berlin's midnight skies, only there is Danny free. Vlad knows this, and feels shame once more. After having all taken away, Danny still forgives. Is Vlad’s bitter vendetta justified? Or was it ever, really?


I'm like a Bird

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

My first song-fiction! Based on Pearl87's Checkmate. In the starry outposts of Berlin's midnight skies, only there is Danny really free. Vlad knows this....and feels shame pang him once again. If Danny can learn to forgive after having everything taken away from him, is Vlad's 20 year vendetta against Jack justified? Or…had it ever been in the first place?

----

_Quote:_

_Come dance with the west wind,  
And touch all the mountain tops,  
Sail o'er the canyons, and up to the stars,  
And reach for the heavens, and hope for the future,  
And all that we can be, not what we are._

_On a windy day let's go flying  
There may be no trees to rest on  
There may be no clouds to ride  
But we'll have our wings and the wind will be with us  
That's enough for me, that's enough for me._

_~*~_

_"You're not gonna come?"_

Although the billionaire had turned the request down, it had almost been rather touching to have Danny's smile falter for such a response.

And almost as blistering as the _guilt_ came crashing down once again as the boy streaked off into the air-but not before pausing in mid flight to

face the billionaire's indigo eyes with his own baby blue.

His voice had been sincere for the next set of words:

"Thanks, Vlad."

And the boy had taken off to the skies, the gnawing sensation growing ever more intense at the older hybrid as his hands gripped the somewhat

icy railing, biting his lip to keep himself from uttering two somber words:

_For what?_

* * *

It had been Daniel's scream that tore the billionaire from his own slumber. For a minute, the startled man had blinked rather uncertainly at the

canopy of his four poster before sighing.

Not again.

He had been accustomed to hearing Danny whimper or cry out during some of the earlier months of his stay when the billionaire would

occasionally check on him during the evening hours, but the child had ceased such actions in the latter weeks. Vlad had never confronted the

younger hybrid about it-the boy would've simply gotten angry, or embarrassed-or denied it all together.

That, or simply have gotten creeped out the billionaire still checked up on him when he was sleeping. He couldn't blame him for that.

Still.....

Why had it been acting up yet aga....?

Vad managed a bitter smile.

It had never some back.

Thing was, the loss the younger hybrid most likely felt never went away in the first place.

* * *

The hybrid shot off into the berry black indigo sky, the cool air whipping at silver bangs as he did so.

There, below, in an enormous sea of lights, was the city.

_I'm like a bird, I'll only fly away  
I don't know where my soul is, I don't know where my home is  
I'm like a bird, I'll only fly away  
I don't know where my soul is , I don't know where my home is  
All I need for you to know is-!_

Sparkling, flaring, whirling-a rainbow, an assortment, a collection, a meangerie of pure energy was below him as nighttime Berlin unfurled under

the younger hybrid in a blaze of twinkling light from the below. It couldn't really compare to the stars, but....

The hybrid raced in hapless zigzags, an elderly couple casually glancing at the twinkling display racing across the sky.

_"Bilden Sie einen Wunsch, lieb,"_ the man remarked, drawing his arm around his wife.

~*~

Danny fluttered slightly downwards, hovering slightly with his mouth open.

The dominating colors below, as red lights twinkled in even lines, back and forth in the city, were a glaring white, and twinkling starbeams of

yellow, flashing undiscriminately from the world below.

Wordlessly, in a scattered dust cycle of gold and silver, he advanced forwards, coming to an abrupt halt in his frantic fluttering.

_I'm like a bird, I'll only fly away  
I don't know where my soul is, I don't know where my home is  
(and baby all I need for you to know is)  
I'm like a bird, I'll only fly away  
I don't know where my soul is , I don't know where my home is  
All I need for you to know is-!_

The billionaire watched him soberly as he soared in the distance. Danny was his own master in this realm-and belonged to no one and nothing,

save for the air.

But the rope had been tied around his ankle. Whenever he tried to go far, in the end, the metal shackle enclosed around his thin limb would jerk

back, reverberating slightly.

He tried to avoid thinking about that. Oh, how both hybrids tried.

At the end of the day, however, those were the thoughts LEFT.

When again, Danny would actually look at the man who tormented him on months on end with not an ounce of anger or hatred....

Well, when all prior annoyances with the young hybrid would arrive through the billionaire's mind, the irritating traces faded.

Because whatever misery the boy had ever caused him was perfectly justified.

It didn't matter how pretty his cage was. In the end-it was still there, even if the boy was able to hop out of it occasionally onto the outside bars.

But hadn't it been enough by now? The young hybrid was..._tired. _

_And perhaps that was one of the benefacting points in Danny's unexplained-_

?

!

?!

_Wait._

_Wait just a...._

_The man stared somewhat dumbly at his own hands._

_Did he just call the boy "Danny?"_

_

* * *

_

The man had him until death.

Vlad knew this, even as he watched Danny soar even higher-a simple illuminous speck in the distance.

Perhaps, in the end, Danny wasn't a little badger so much as he was a little bird. He smiled somewhat sadly.

Little birds didn't come back unless they had no other option. But how can a captive robin learn to like the hand that, when all was said and done,

continue to place back in its cage?

And Vladimir Masters had the boy's wings clipped.

_I'm like a bird, I'll only fly away  
I don't know where my soul is, I don't know where my home is  
(and baby all I need for you to know is)  
I'm like a bird, I'll only fly away  
I don't know where my soul is , I don't know where my home is  
All I need for you to know is-!_

* * *

The teenagers of this generation were much more spoiled then those of Vlad's.

Or so he had believed, until now.

Anyone who could actually treat their kidnapper as an equal-more then most _adults _could not matter such a feat.

So...how could a four....well, _fifteen year old boy _cease hating him?!

_"Daniel, if I accept, that means you will serve me with **all** the strings that come with the word. I want your loyalty. Your powers, your strength, _

_everything you hold will become my own. You will yield completely to me."_

And Daniel had done so.

Life was so less bitter for the man now that the child was his apprentice.

Or so he thought.

Danny should hate him.

But he **didn't.**

So would it be pushing his luck for the hybrid to try and ensnare his beloved Maddie? It seemed nothing more then dumb luck and unbelievable

good fortune for the man that he had the relationship that he did with Daniel. Was it a sign to go forwards?

Or...would it all go crashing down to the earth? Danny couldn't rid the bots from Jasmine's body-he would be bound regardless.

But he could see his sister again! AND his mother! Blast it-even those annoying little brats Daniel was so fond of.

Jack, well....

Kind of hard to see a dead man. Or, at the very least, one that left his family.

How could he obtain Maddie without losing Danny? The little hybrid would _hate_ him if he discovered that the older hyrbid had...intervened, in terms

of cordiality.

No.

The boy would _loathe him-_and rightly so.

The correct choice? Let the child go free.

But that was never going to happen. In the end-Danny was all the older hybrid actually had, sad as it sounded, _wrong _as it sounded-!

His eyes glazed over with sorrow.

_I'm like a bird, I'll only fly away  
I don't know where my soul is, I don't know where my home is  
(and baby all I need for you to know is)  
I'm like a bird, I'll only fly away  
I don't know where my soul is , I don't know where my home is  
All I need for you to know is-!_

_He figured he had forced the little hybrid into a corner of submission so many months back._

_But, in the end, who was more trapped inbetween indecision? The little bird spinning outside....or the captor himself?_


End file.
